User Reviews

Mrs. Rayburn is substituting for Miss Landers and is seeking ideas for a writing assignment for homework, and Larry comes up with a winning idea: writing about our mothers before they were married. Mrs. Rayburn likes the idea so everyone has to write a fifty-word composition on their mothers before they married. Larry tells Beaver that his mom was a dental nurse and that's how she met her husband: he had cavities.

Beaver needs to talk to mom after dinner to find out what she did when she was a girl. Basically, June went to boarding school and spent summers with Aunt Martha. June did work for five days in a bookstore before they fired her; and she won a blue swimming cap. There just isn't a lot to work with; when Beaver hears some of his classmates' stories, Beaver feels embarrassed and he throws what he wrote away. When he is called on, Beaver lies and said he just didn't do the assignment. Mrs. Rayburn warns him that he better have something for tomorrow. How will he top moms who were store buyers or WACS.

Ward and June are going to the Rutherfords' to play bridge which leaves the boys at home. Beaver is begging Wally for help but he's too busy with geometry. After Beaver takes a bath he goes downstairs and watches TV: an interview with a Broadway star is on and Beaver is using her life as a source. When asked to read his composition, Beaver's informs the class that his mother ran away from home at seventeen to become a chorus girl. Then she was dancing in dives where her career was aided by a gangster. Everyone seems quite impressed.

When Beaver gets home he learns that June has been called to the school to speak with Mrs. Rayburn. When Wally gets home he goes up to his room where he finds Beaver hiding in the closet; he figures he knows why June was called to the school. When June gets home she has the composition and reads it aloud to Ward who is amused. June is angry, but Ward says Beaver wrote what he did because he loves her and just wanted her to be the most glamorous mom in the school. Ward also reminds June that when she was at boarding school she told the girls her mother was a movie star. June gets the point But June wants Ward to talk to Beaver. Ward explains to Beaver about learning to accept your life as it is; you just can't live your life in a dream. Beaver decides he had better apologize to his mom for embarrassing her.

Larry tells Beaver that he doesn't have to worry when he goes back to school because everyone knew Beaver's composition was made up; but it was fun to listen to because it was exciting, sort of like King Kong. Even Larry wishes he had written something that would have made his mother exciting.

No doubt many viewers were amused at Beaver's dilemma and found the situation funny. But from experience I learned to be wary of giving out such assignments. Far too many students had no "moral" censor and would write completely honestly about their home lives. In too many cases teachers found themselves in a dilemma: do they turn over what has been revealed to DFCS (Department of Family and Children's Service) or just hand back the compositions.

This very amusing episode could be considered June's equivalent of the Ward-centered story "Most Interesting Character" from Season 2. In that episode, Beaver set about writing a composition about Ward and became dismayed at how uninteresting his father really was. In "Mothers' Day Composition," Beaver is assigned to write an essay about what his mother did before she was married. June's pre-marital life turns out to have been so uneventful that Beaver comes up short and decides to copy some sensational details from a celebrity interview he saw on TV. We are then treated to a hilarious scene as Beaver reads his spiced-up composition (June used to be a chorus girl, Ward used to be a tap dancer, etc.) in front of the class, to the great amusement of all - except Mrs. Rayburn.

The theme of telling tall tales and embellishing the truth came up numerous times on LITB, and here as on previous occasions it leads to the moral that "we have to accept things as God gave them to us." What is also notable is that Ward and June do not become angry at Beaver for his fabrications but show understanding toward him. This episode is one of my favorites from what was undoubtedly the strongest season of the series, Season 3.